An inductor, which is a coil electronic component, is a representative passive element configuring an electronic circuit together with a resistor and a capacitor, or the like, for removing noise from the electronic circuit or forming an LC resonance circuit.
Recently, as products in which electronic components are used are becoming complex and multi-functional, a demand for compact, large-current, and high-capacity coil electronic components for use in such products has increased. Therefore, conventional inductors have rapidly been replaced by small, high-density chips which may be automatically surface-mounted, and thin film-type inductors have been developed by mixing a magnetic powder with a resin and forming coil patterns on upper and lower surfaces of a thin film insulating substrate by plating.
However, the thin film-type inductors may have a considerable amount of magnetic flux leakage when the amount of current flowing in the products containing electronic components increases, which leads to malfunction of such products. To address this problem, research into suppressing the leakage of magnetic flux from the thin film-type inductors has been continuously conducted.